San Miguel de Allende.- A 70 year-old foreign resident of SMA, was the victim of a violent assault at noon last Wednesday Feb. 6th, in the exclusive neighborhood of Villa de los Frailes. Despite making the report immediately to the public safety department, they took five hours to get to the crime scene.
Last Wednesday Feb. 6th, at approximately 12 noon, a 70-year-old resident was thrown to the ground at her home by a masked individual who managed to enter through an unlocked door, and put a gun to her head . Three men, who had been sitting in a Dodge van outside the house in “Los Frailes” entered the house and quickly searched the property for valuables. They left almost as quickly as they arrived, with a small amount of cash, a television, a computer and a backpack.
Fortunately, the woman was unharmed. She immediately tried to call 911, even though her Spanish is understandable, she spent 15 minutes talking to the operator to give her directions on how to locate the address.
A few minutes later her husband arrived and both waited for more than an hour for the arrival of somebody from the public security secretariat. At their insistence on 911, the operators only responded that “they were on their way”.
At about 3 o’clock in the afternoon, the couple decided to go to another house where they could feel more safe, they kept calling 911 again and again and finally asked for David Bossman’s support.
Until David’s intervention, General Eddy decided to contact them at 5:00 pm and arrived at the home of those affected along with three municipal police patrols, the General requested to see the 911 calls and the first one was registerd at 12: 18 hours.
At night, the judicial investigators arrived at the home to process the crime scene and collect evidence, such as fingerprints and graphic records. Until tht time, the woman was able to present her formal complaint to the Public Ministry.
The municipal government declared in November, that with the purchase of new patrol cars, the time of response in case of an emergency would be reduced. According to their statement, it was going to take them less than 12 minutes to attend each report even in rural areas.
But the reality is that the 911 telephone operators can not handle a call in English, the victim could’ve died and law enforcement agents took 5 hours to get to her place. This is totally unacceptable in a city where thousands of Americans live full time and are a fundamental part of the local community in many ways.
Ths San Miguel Times with information from: The Mazatlan Post